


The Stars and the Moon

by meowy_times



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Demon AU, Fluff, Help, I think it’s fluff, Not really romantic, demon isn’t the most important part yknow, i don’t know, sorta soulmates, this au has so many loopholes, tsukki is demon, uhhh first fic, what are tags, yamaguchi is smol, yams mom is there for a bit, yea whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:41:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25000018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meowy_times/pseuds/meowy_times
Summary: Yamaguchi Tadashi and Tsukishima Kei had always been together. It was almost a given. Throughout the decades and the lifetimes, they’d always been together. One lifetime, they might have been humans, and another, puppies, or even insects. But truth stood, that no matter how many times they lived, or how many reincarnations they suffered, they were always together, in the same world.Until suddenly, they weren’t.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei & Yamaguchi Tadashi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	The Stars and the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> hello yes, this is my first fic... idk what’s going on, i think it’s alright
> 
> ...if the format is weird, sorry idk how this rlly works

Yamaguchi Tadashi and Tsukishima Kei had always been together. It was almost a given. Throughout the decades and the lifetimes, they’d always been together. One lifetime, they might have been humans, and another, puppies, or even insects. But truth stood, that no matter how many times they lived, or how many reincarnations they suffered, they were always together, in the same world.

Until suddenly, they weren’t.

*****

Yamaguchi trudged behind the other boys. He was eight years-old and positively friendless. The backpacks he carried weighed him down like he was carrying boulders. He might as well have been. He was on backpack duty, an order from the boys ahead of him.

“Hey! Hurry up slowpoke!”

Yamaguchi looked up, surprised that the boys had even bothered talking to him. It was routine now for them to be ahead, jeering and talking about their sports. Yamaguchi’s only job was to follow them through the forest until they reached the neighborhoods. Then, the boys would take their backpacks back, throw one last blow at Yamaguchi, and run to their houses.

“You’re too slow! Jeez, you’re so weak too,” one boy sneered. “This is why you should join a sport y’know.”

Another boy just laughed, “The baseball team would never accept you though, I bet your noodle arms can’t even hold the bat.”

The third boy nodded. “Yeah, we’re doing you a favor. We’re helping you get strong, so hurry up!”

*****

Tsukishima grimaced. It was his first lesson as a demon, and he was already lost. What was worse was that he was far too close to human territory. He couldn’t even remember what he was supposed to be doing.

It wasn’t as though humans were an unknown being to demons. They learned human language and bits of human history. Humans were hardly even a threat to the demon kind. But still, the rules stated that a demon wasn’t supposed to go onto human territory, unless summoned or directed to. There were unspoken rules so that the human and demon world never interact.

A muffled sound came from behind the bushes. Humans! Was Tsukishima so lost that he’d already stepped into human territory? Or perhaps he was in the middle ground, an area between the human and demon territories, where both parties could pass through. Tsukishima could hear the humans talking, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. Since he was so young, he didn’t really know human language yet.

Looking over the bushes, Tsukishima could see four human children. _They don’t look much different from us._ Tsukishima thought. Three of them seemed to be ganging up on a fourth, smaller-looking child. Tsukishima couldn’t understand, but he knew that they weren’t being nice. They’re tone was offsetting in itself, and that was enough for Tsukishima to reveal himself. He straightened up, catching the boys’ attention.

One boy was holding a stick, he seemed to be in the middle of hitting the smallest boy with it.

“Pathetic.” Tsukishima said. He hated the way it sounded. The way it felt as it came out of his mouth, all wrong and distorted from not speaking human dialect. He hoped it still got a message across.

*****

Yamaguchi’s eyes widened in surprise. He was crying. He hated to admit it, because the other boys would laugh, but he was. The other boys were too surprised in the moment to continue beating him. They’d already made fun of his crying, calling him a baby and weak.

Still, that didn’t change the undeniable fact that a demon was standing and watching them.

He was much taller than any regular eight year-old. His eyes were a piercing blue that were too vibrant to be real. They were the kind of eyes that you’d imagine only after reading a fairytale. He was wearing glasses too. The demon wore a faded turquoise robe with white pattern on it. Despite the fact that he looked the age of a sixth grader, he could easily be concealing his true age.

“Pathetic.”

The demon looked at them and then ran off into the woods. His voice sounded odd, like he had sounded out the word out loud and then had his voice chords grated against a blackboard.

The other boys were rightfully scared. Demons to humans were rare, almost never seen occasions. They definitely weren’t unheard of, but most of their stories included the death of a human or a curse too terrible to imagine. In a flash, the backpacks were yanked and ripped out of Yamaguchi’s arms.

“Run!” one boy screamed.

“Watch out! They’re gonna curse us!”

The bullies ran from the forest, as fast as they could, leaving Yamaguchi to ponder what the demon meant.

Surely the demon meant him, he was pretty pathetic after all. Or maybe he meant the bullies. Or maybe he meant humankind as a whole. After all, the demons did have powers that humans didn’t, making them stronger than humans. _No._ Yamaguchi thought. _He definitely meant me. I’m weak and pathetic._

*****

_Shoot, shoot, shoot! I talked to humans! Nii-san said not to do that if I could avoid it! And I totally could avoid it!_

Tsukishima ran back towards the demon village at full speed. Not like his full speed was much more than an average kid. Demons had to build up their strength after all. No demon was born with all the powers they had. Still, there were some demons that were nonetheless stronger than others.

Tsukishima was technically one of them. Technically, because that just meant he’d have to go though ten times more training. He was a moon demon, one of the many in his family.

Finding the village again, Tsukishima ran to his brother. He had been in the middle of working something when Tsukishima crashed into him for a hug.

“Hey buddy!” Tsukishima’s brother, Akiteru, said. “How was your training?”

Tsukishima just clutched his brother harder and pouted.

“Oh… that bad, hm? Well don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it, kid.” Akiteru ruffled Tsukishima’s hair and laughed. “You should go play now, if your training is done.”

*****

“Tadashi! How was school?” Yamaguchi’s mom called out to him. He’d spent the last fifteen minutes walking home, faster than usual with only one backpack to carry.

“It was okay,” Yamaguchi lied. He didn’t want his mom to know what the kids were doing to him. He definitely didn’t want her to know that he’d seen a demon today.

After dinner, Yamaguchi sat on his bed, wondering about his day. Looking out the window, he saw the full moon beaming down on him. _I wonder why that demon showed up… Was it to save me? But he called me pathetic… maybe he was just passing through. Still, I think he saved me so I should say thank you when I see him again. Wait! What am I thinking, I won’t see that demon again._ Yamaguchi’s thoughts ran in circles until he fell asleep.

The next morning and the morning after that, the bullies didn’t bother or even talk to Yamaguchi. The demon scared them away from him, and from each other. If the teacher noticed anything odd, she didn’t mention it. No curses seemed to be manifesting into Yamaguchi, or anything noticeable in the other boys. Still, Yamaguchi worried that something would happen.

Even two weeks later, even a month later, he worried.

*****

Demons weren’t really demons, in the sense of being scary. They were more like spirits who controlled bits and pieces and parts of the world. Because of this, they really could alter space and teleport and such. There were demons to make thunderstorms and demons to make the grass grow. But demons couldn’t curse a person, no matter how much hate they had for one person, they couldn’t. They could use their powers to spite a person, but that’d be abuse of power. The demon would then most likely reincarnate into something insignificant, like an insect or a leaf or a small fish.

Still Tsukishima knew that demon looks could be very scary to a human. Most demons had bright unnatural eyes. They also seemed to exude a frightening and cold aura.

Tsukishima was a moon demon. His was one of the smaller clans around, but they still had a very important job: to change the moon every night so it looked as though it was waxing or waning accordingly. Akiteru had said it was like feeding and caring for a pet, only that the diet continued to change almost constantly.

It was Tsukishima’s first Moon Pouring. He’d been lucky, his first was on the full moon. The Moon Pouring was an event that happened every night, but the full moon was particularly special. Moon demons worked their magic to make moonlight, a liquidy substance that shined brighter than the stars. Then, they would pour the moonlight into a tube that led to a round glass that looked like the moon. The glass was covered in craters so it really did look like the moon. There were three special crater marks that every moon demon had to learn, for crescent, half, and gibbous moons.

Moon demons were mostly nocturnal, sharing their world with the star demons, the night sky demons, and the nocturnal animals. It was usual for a moon demon to wake, go to Moon Pouring, and when day came, go to Moon Draining. Moon Draining was merely emptying the moonlight, which would’ve already dulled and lost magic.

“Kei, you lucky boy,” Akiteru laughed. One month of training and Tsukishima was ready to participate in a full moon. “I think my first Moon Pouring was a crescent moon, not much need for newbies. But a full moon always could use a little more.”

Tsukishima rubbed his hands together, like his teacher had taught him. The moonlight just appeared in his hands and the more he rubbed, the more leaked through his fingers.

“Alright, now over here, into the pipe.”

Tsukishima watched in wonder as the sparkling, pale yellow liquid fell into the moon container, shining brightly. He’d seen the Moon Pouring plenty of times, but actually being a part of it was something new.

*****

Yamaguchi stood in the forest clearing, bouncing a ball on the ground. If he was going to get strong like the bullies had told him too, then he’d need to start a sport. He couldn’t pick though. Baseball and basketball had big, scary people. He’d be swallowed alive by their size.

*****

Tsukishima stared at the ceiling, laying on his bed. He couldn’t sleep even though he was supposed to. The sun peeked through his blinds, a reminder that he should really be asleep. Being a moon demon meant living in the silence of night. Light was something rare, brought only by stars and small lanterns.

Tsukishima sat upright. He’d changed into regular clothes. A sweater and pants, instead of training or ceremonial robes. He might go for a walk, blending in with the daytime demons.

Another month had passed since his run-in with the humans. Like he was just going to forget about it. He couldn’t forget about it, and still, he headed away from the suburb houses and towards the middle ground. He didn’t really like the day demons. The intense sun demons and the wild storm demons that so easily forgot about the moon and the nighttime.

Tsukishima soon found himself near the path that he first saw humans. They were so like him that he could maybe pass as a human. Any demon could.

They had the same bodies, the same face structures, they looked so much the same. As Tsukishima wondered this, he didn’t notice the rustling bushes ahead of him. A ball came out of the bushes, followed by a human boy.

“O-oh, sorry!” The boy said looking up. Tsukishima could sense the boy’s shock, looking at him. “Ah,” a sense of recognition now, “T-thank you!” It was one of the earlier words that Tsukishima had learned. He understood. Still he feigned not knowing.

“Who are you?”

The boy looked at him in surprise. “I-I’m Yamaguchi Tadashi! You helped me two months ago.” He looked down, clearly disappointed that Tsukishima didn’t remember him.

“Oh. I’m Tsukishima Kei. What are you doing?” Tsukishima looked at the striped ball in Yamaguchi’s arms.

“I was just throwing it around…” he mumbled, looking at the ball, “I wanted to join a sport but there’s only baseball, basketball, and soccer… all those guys are scary.” And yet he wasn’t scared of Tsukishima? Maybe he hadn’t realized that Tsukishima was a demon. No, that wasn’t it, he realized who Tsukishima was, and so thanked him like that. _So he’s scared of some human kids but not a demon?_ Tsukishima wondered.

*****

Tsukishima Kei. So this demon had a name and he looked like a human. He wasn’t at all like the demons that Yamaguchi saw in his books. He was so human. He even spoke human language. He wasn’t scary like the books said and he wasn’t as mean as the boys in class. Yamaguchi couldn’t help but trust this demon.

“How old are you?”

“Huh? I’m eight. Human and demon years are the same.” So he really was a tall eight year-old. Yamaguchi was surprised, because he still looked like a sixth grader.

“Do you want to play ball?” Yamaguchi paused, looking at Tsukishima.

“Sure.”

They spent hours throwing the ball back and forth. Not saying much, even though Yamaguchi had millions of questions about the demon world and he Tsukishima looked so human. _Is it a disguise? Why isn’t he wearing a robe? What’s he doing here? What’s the demon world like? Do they have phones? How does he know human languages?_

*****

Yamaguchi didn’t seem like a bad person. Tsukishima wasn’t supposed to be there, sure. But it was sort of fun, throwing the ball back and forth, with no difference in rhythm. Yamaguchi was a scrawny looking kid, but he was able to do this for hours. His black-brown hair was short, falling around his neck. He didn’t talk much, even as it got later and later.

******

As evening fell, Yamaguchi wondered if Tsukishima had to go. He’d started to look antsy as time went on. Maybe he was bored.

“Uh, I have to go home now… wanna meet here again?” Yamaguchi mumbled, missing the ball for the first time.

“Yeah, but not everyday. Every night?”

Every night? Yamaguchi couldn’t do that. He was eight, he couldn’t sneak into the forest every night. His mom would worry.

“Ah… sorry. I’m a moon demon, we don’t usually stay out during the day.” Tsukishima scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Then what are you doing here…?”

“Oh,” Tsukishima shrugged, “I couldn’t sleep.”

So moon demons slept during the day. Yamaguchi wanted to know more but he had to go.

As Yamaguchi walked home, he bounced the ball on the sidewalk. With every bounce, a new question popped into his head. _If we keep meeting up, what’s going to happen? What do demons do? Especially to little humans like him? What’s it like to be a demon? What if Tsukishima was lying? What if he’s actually thousands of years old?_

But still, Yamaguchi could do nothing but trust Tsukishima.

*****

When Tsukishima was nine, he learned how to glamour. It was a basic magic demon skill. The ability to change the way one looked, though only ever so slightly. It could only change minor details, eye color or hair color. Tsukishima chose only to change his eye color to a brownish amber color. It still glowed ever so slightly with demon magic, but in Tsukishima’s opinion, it fit his aesthetic better. His aesthetic was plenty dorky but he never thought that. Clothes with little moon symbols, dinosaurs, and strawberry shortcakes. In truth, Tsukishima was a huge dork but he’d never admit it.

Of course, when Yamaguchi saw him, he was shocked.

“Y-your eyes, Tsukki… they aren’t blue.” Tsukki was what Yamaguchi called him. It had been some time, months ago, when Yamaguchi gave him that nickname.

“Yeah, it’s demon magic.”

“Woahhh, that’s so cool Tsukkiiiii.” Yamaguchi’s eyes glimmered with awe. “I wanna learn how to do it too!”

“I-it’s not really that big of a deal… You can’t learn demon magic, you’re not a demon.” Tsukishima burst with pride from being praised. He tried his best to act cool about it.

“I can!” Yamaguchi said stubbornly, “How do you do it? Show me!” Tsukishima didn’t want to hurt Yamaguchi, but whatever he said might hurt him anyway. He might as well try and let Yamaguchi do it. Nothing would happen anyway.

“Uh ok, so you just rub your hands like this.” Tsukishima demonstrated and the moonlight started to drip down from his hands. Yamaguchi stared at him and then tried to imitate. “Uh no, not round, just up and down… like this.” The moonlight pooled on the grass, shining and pale yellow.

Yamaguchi tried again and again, but to no avail. Tsukishima couldn’t help but feel a little sorry. He was trying so hard to do something plainly impossible for a human. After about ten minutes of rubbing his hands together, Tsukishima could see that Yamaguchi’s hands were red.

“Stop… don’t hurt yourself.” Yamaguchi looked up from his hands. He was crying. Shock ran through Tsukishima like lightning. _He’s human, of course he can’t… he’s being stupid._ Tsukishima thought.

But still, something was off about it. Yamaguchi’s crying. Then, Tsukishima realized. Yamaguchi’s eyes, usually a dull brown green, were shining like emeralds in the light. His tears were clear, but they sparkled like they had crystals or diamonds in them.

“Yamaguchi…”

*****

Yamaguchi always tried to hide the fact he was crying. It’d started way back, when he learned crying was a weakness, that it was weird. Still, he wasn’t the strongest, he cried often, making his face red and blotchy.

How stupid was he? To try demon magic while human and break down in front of his best friend? His only friend. Tsukki would see him as weak and pathetic again.

When Yamaguchi was little and still cried freely, when he was a baby, his parents would often find his face covered in sparkles. It made them wonder if he’d smashed his face into a bowl of glitter. Yamaguchi knew it wasn’t a normal way to cry and hid it more and more. He didn’t understand the sparkles.

Yamaguchi looked up at Tsukki, wondering if he was laughing. Instead, the forest was entirely silent, save for the rustling wind, and Tsukki had the most shocked look Yamaguchi had seen. That just made Yamaguchi cry harder.

“Yamaguchi… you… I think you–“ Yamaguchi cut Tsukki off with hiccupping and sobbing. He sounded terrible. He’d known Tsukki for just under a year and Tsukki had told him so much about the demon world. It was a lot like his own, with big buildings and shops and people. Yamaguchi still wanted to know so much more, but there was no way Tsukki would tell him anything again if he acted like this.

“I… I’m sorry. I-I just thought t-that I could do it.” Yamaguchi hiccups before bursting into another round of sobs.

“No… Yamaguchi, I think you might be a demon…”

The amazement and shock, the fear and anxiety, everything bombarded Yamaguchi at once. All these feelings, what was Yamaguchi supposed to feel right now? No, I’m not a demon. I’m just normal. I’m so normal, it’s sad. I’m not worth anything, I can’t be a demon. They have responsibilities, right? I can’t be a demon.

“Really, Tadashi, I think you are.” Tsuki said it like it was a fact. The same way he said that dinosaurs were cool. The same way he said strawberry shortcake was the best or how the English word for moon was pronounced “muun”.

Because it was the truth. It was a fact. Yamaguchi was most literally starry eyed.

*****

Star demons were rare nowadays. They hardly existed anymore. The starlight that Yamaguchi cried was a less potent, more diluted form of stardust. Star demons were hardly needed or noticed. Light pollution, airplanes, and smog had all covered and blocked the stars. No one would notice if they were gone, so they slowly stopped being born.

Star demons used to work with the moon. The same way the sun demons worked with the sky, they were a pair that filled the holes that needed to be filled.

Demons born in the human realm were even rarer. Though it wasn’t a different realm really, a demon born on the human side was much harder to find. But they happened. Yamaguchi was a living proof. It was so rare these days, that all rules allowing human-raised demons to go through had been abolished. The middle ground was the only place Tsukishima and Yamaguchi could meet up. Thousands of years ago, perhaps demons were allowed to do as they liked in the human world. As long as they were civil, they could go anywhere.

Yamaguchi’s existence was a one in a billion chance this time around.

“Yamaguchi, come with me.” Tsukishima had decided to show Yamaguchi the demon’s world. It was midday, so the noisy sun demons and such would be out and about, but Tsukishima hardly cared.

“C’mon, stop crying.” Yamaguchi wiped his nose with one hand and grabbed Tsukishima’s hand with the other. Tsukishima wondered what would happen now.

*****

Yamaguchi followed Tsukki silently. He was just happy that Tsukki hadn’t left him.

“Where are we going?”

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.” Tsukki was like that, he’d tell Yamaguchi to shut up, but never meant anything by it. Although Yamaguchi often found himself apologizing anyway, out of habit.

Tsukki pulled Yamaguchi forward, along a splitting path. Instead of going right, like Yamaguchi would to go to school, Tsukki went left, on a winding road. It twisted and turned and Yamaguchi wondered if they’d gotten lost as the path disappeared. Yamaguchi had stopped crying by the time they got to the tunnel. Under a bush, a tunnel made of roots and branches made itself obvious. Tsukki ducked into the tunnel and Yamaguchi had no choice but to follow.

They went through the tunnel, it was larger than Yamaguchi had initially thought. When they got to the other side, they were in a yard. In front of him stood a very average looking house. It was grey and modern.

“This is my house.” Tsukki said proudly, as though he’d accomplished something. “You being here means that you are a demon.”

“What do you mean?” Yamaguchi was confused. “I’m a demon like you? I have magic?”

“Well yeah, sorta.” Tsuki said airily. “Demons aren’t allowed in the human world unless summoned and humans are never allowed in the demon world. So you are a demon.” Tsuki pointed at Yamaguchi’s chest and continued to speak. “You’re a star demon, they’re rare. You specifically create your magic by crying, which is a shame.”

Yamaguchi looked around. He wanted to explore, see the difference between here and his home. All the blinds in Tsukki’s house were closed and it was dark.

*****

“I’ll show you around.” Tsukishima muttered. He wasn’t supposed to be awake and a new kid might startle the other demons. Still, Yamaguchi needed to know more now, he couldn’t just know about the Moon Pouring. He’d need to know the star ritual, which Tsukishima didn’t know himself. Tsukishima wondered if anyone could even teach Yamaguchi. He didn’t know any living star demons.

*****

As Tsukki showed Yamaguchi around, he realized that demons really were just like humans. The only clear difference was their powers and sometimes their looks.

“So there aren’t cat demons and animal demons in general… but there’s sun demons and sky demons and wind demons… basically every natural thing probably has a demon, I think. Uhh and they all have their own ritual stuff, like the Moon Pouring. Ummm so you’ll probably have to learn the star ritual but I don’t know it…”

Tsukki kept talking, it was perhaps the most Yamaguchi has heard Tsukki talk. Yamaguchi listened the whole time, or tried his very best to, being distracted by the things going on around him. It was so normal looking but in the middle of the neighborhood, there was a paved track. Another boy, with flaming orange hair was attached to a giant yellow sphere. He was dragging it along the path, somehow not even scratching it. As they got closer, Yamaguchi realized, the ball was hovering every so slightly off the ground, and yet it seemed extremely heavy.

“It’s getting late, wanna see a Moon Pouring?” Yamaguchi was snapped back into focus. Tsukki looked at him, worried.

“S-sure.”

*****

Before they knew it, it was well into the night.

“I think I should go home now…” Tsukishima looked up as Yamaguchi sat up. They had been laying on a hill, staring at the moon and the starless sky. Tsukishima couldn’t expect Yamaguchi to just know how to use magic. He, himself, had to go through countless lessons, just to learn control over his magic.

“Bring me back to the middle ground,” Yamaguchi mumbled. He stood up and started running down the hill. Tsukishima sighed. If they didn’t bring Yamaguchi home, there’d be a search party and lost posters and all sorts of things. But Tsukishima couldn’t tell Yamaguchi that he couldn’t go home, that he could only go as far as the middle ground’s forest.

Still Tsukishima obliged. He took Yamaguchi a different way, an easier way than the tunnel in his backyard. As soon as they got there, Tsukishima hid in the bushes. The flashlights found Yamaguchi quickly. “Oh baby! Where were you? Mama’s been worried sick!” Yamaguchi was swooped up into his mother’s arms. “Are you tired? You must be… c’mon let’s go home.”

Tsukishima followed them through the forest, hiding in the darkness. He was still wearing the robes from the earlier Moon Pouring. He hoped he wasn’t too noisy. Not like it mattered, Tsukishima used his newly learned skills to hide himself. Concealment. Really it should be the first magic that a demon learns.

They headed down the path, going the opposite direction, towards the human neighborhoods. Yamaguchi was still being carried by his mother, all the way until the very end of the path.

As other searchers passed through, Yamaguchi’s mother couldn’t. Not with Yamaguchi in her arms. Tsukishima couldn’t hear what they were saying anymore, but he knew Yamaguchi was crying.

He could see it. Yamaguchi’s tears didn’t stream down his face, but instead sparkled and floated upwards, to the sky.

*****

“Mama, I think I’m a demon.” Yamaguchi started to cry. He knew that he couldn’t go into the human world anymore, he couldn’t live with his family. And he hadn’t noticed at first, but his tears were rising up and disappearing into the sky.

Now his mother was crying. “I always knew you were a bit different.” Her tears were normal, clear and not sparkling, but they still shone in the darkness, being illuminated by the moon. Yamaguchi wondered what it meant. If he was a star demon and couldn’t go home for supper. If he stopped going to school and had to live in the demon world. Would Tsuki take him in or would he have to live all by himself? It was too much.

“It’s ok,” he whispered, “go home.” His mom only cried harder.

“Who’s going to take care of you now?” she murmured. She wiped his tears and set him down.

“Mama, it’s ok! Tsukki could take care of me…” Yamaguchi wondered if it was true. Tsukki’s family seemed nice and Yamaguchi had met Akiteru, but they were busy, was it even possible?

“Tsukki’s a demon?” His mother looked surprised. Yamaguchi always mentioned Tsukki, he was his only friend after all, but Yamaguchi had never thought to mention it.

“Yeah… His family could take care of me… and we could meet in the forest!” Yamaguchi decided, still not sure if it would work. Still, he couldn’t stand here forever, stewing in the sadness. It would still be possible to see and talk with his mother, just impossible for him to go home. Yamaguchi pushed his mother through the invisible barrier between the forest and the houses, making sure to wave goodbye.

Yamaguchi stood, wondering now what he should do. Tsukki probably left earlier so Yamaguchi would have to find his way back on his own. Yamaguchi turned his head to the sky and was amazed.

The sky that was once a pitch black, vast expanse, was now dotted with stars that shone brightly, like they’d always belonged.

*****

That was six years ago. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were now fifteen. Tsukishima’s family considered Yamaguchi as part of their family now too. Tsukishima wondered if he ever missed the human world. Human life. He could still see his mother every day, even if it meant staying up late or waking up earlier to do so. Yamaguchi had been studying harder than anyone these last few years. He had catching up to do and needed to learn demon language. It was all backwards for him. Tsukishima taught him demon language and culture, and apparently it wasn’t too different from humans. The only noticeable thing was still rituals and apparently humans had them too.

Yamaguchi wasn’t a flashy demon. He had brown eyes and hair, and his face was dotted with freckles. That was perhaps the reason he could live so long in the human world. Tsukishima wondered if Yamaguchi hated him, even just a little. For awakening the demon magic in him and bringing him over. If he did, Yamaguchi didn’t show any sign of it at all.

Now was the new year. It was a big deal to humans and demons alike. This year was especially special, with a super moon and a clear sky. Tsukishima rubbed his hands together, making the now honey-colored liquid out of his hands. Yamaguchi was able to channel his magic now and copied Tsukishima, making his own clear, glittery substance. The festival would be tonight. The humans would light off fireworks and set lanterns into the air. They’d eat street foods and snack on sweets. They’d play games at booths and lose money for a few goldfish.

Tsukishima sat on the hill, Yamaguchi by his side. They watched the fireworks and ate sweet bread. They were content with this life.

*****

Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were meant to stay together. They filled each other’s flaws and differences. Yamaguchi liked soggy fries and Tsukishima ate the crispy ones. Yamaguchi ate the strawberries and Tsukishima had the shortcake. It was a given that they’d always end up together, no matter how long it took. Even when it looked like they weren’t meant to be, when they were literally worlds apart, they found each other through chances unheard of.

Every lifetime that passed, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi always found each other, one way or another.

**Author's Note:**

> hello again uhhh this’ll probably become a series, i have like a good chunk of another story in this au... if i have motivation. and uhh there’s like way too many holes in the au but it’s magic ummmm
> 
> quarantine really is making me brave enough to post stuff


End file.
